Outdoor Play : Gardening

A garden has been on my to do list for many summers.
Finally this summer, we got one planted.
Thanks to my mom.

The weather we’ve had this last week has been perfect!
It’s been so great to be outdoors!

Henry didn’t get into it as much as I had hoped he would with the garden, especially at first.
(When there’s big machines also at the farm, planting a garden isn’t the first priority.)

When Henry did start helping, he started by gathering rocks in a pail.
My mom and I did a lot of the planting ourselves, but Henry joined in as well.
He helped dig some holes for the tomato, cauliflower and pepper plants.

Grandma showed Henry how to pull the plant out of the container.

This is actually a great way to work on fine motor skills,
pinching and pulling in a specific spot of the stem.

More fine motor practice?

Planting the seeds in the garden puts the little fingers to work!
Henry helped a little with planting pumpkins, squash, cantaloupe and cucumbers.
(Mom and I planted all the peas ourselves.)

After each seed is in its little hole,
Henry carefully covered each up with dirt and patted it down.

Lastly, the plants need a drink of water.

Henry loves to help water flowers at home,
so hopefully he’ll enjoy doing this throughout the summer!
(Hopefully he’ll enjoy weeding it, too!)

10 Comments

glad I found you- I actually posted the link up button for Playtime- and then figured out that my timing is off- I'll jump in on Thursday this week for sure! in the mean-time, check out the post – It was originally written for Outdoor Play link-up and fit well with your theme too!

Love your garden post- good luck with the "love of weeding" thing! lol

Love your post, especially the great Pictures, what a gorgeous day! I started a garden with my kids this year as well, (I actually wrote a post about it on my blog) we are now starting to get little tomatoes and peppers, it's very exciting! It's also much less work to maintaining it then I thought there would be. Good luck with your garden.Erin (www.theintentionalparent.org)